kngfisher March 9, 2006 Share March 9, 2006 Well my neiborhood just had a power outage and the tank survived but my finnex heater will not work now. I had an UPS on the tank providing power to the heater and one powerhead and long story short, heard a crackle followed by a buring small and now my nice new (purchased 18 Feb) Finnex HC-0800 thermo-controller wont turn on. Anyone ever use this product and if so, anyone ever have any problems with them? The heater was in the tank and the coltroller was mounted on the wall away from any potential risk of water getting in the unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhoch March 9, 2006 Share March 9, 2006 Something about the type of current provided is not good for powerhead and heaters (you need some kind of... inverter(?)) So I don't think it's a problem with your heater, but what you had it plugged into. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kngfisher March 9, 2006 Author Share March 9, 2006 Something about the type of current provided is not good for powerhead and heaters (you need some kind of... inverter(?)) So I don't think it's a problem with your heater, but what you had it plugged into. Dave 55612[/snapback] had it plugged into the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhoch March 9, 2006 Share March 9, 2006 Either I misunderstood you, or you me... You said you had the heater plugged into a UPS.... that's where the problme is... the heater is not designed to handle the battery power source... (Or you could say the battery power source is not designed to handle powering the heater or pumps). Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kngfisher March 9, 2006 Author Share March 9, 2006 Either I misunderstood you, or you me... You said you had the heater plugged into a UPS.... that's where the problme is... the heater is not designed to handle the battery power source... (Or you could say the battery power source is not designed to handle powering the heater or pumps). Dave 55764[/snapback] so I can use a UPS to power my servers but not my aquarium in case of a power outage? What do you do then what the power goes out to keep the tank temp steady. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhoch March 9, 2006 Share March 9, 2006 Get a generator... There is also a power inverter that you can get as well (runs off a car somehow). Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikS March 9, 2006 Share March 9, 2006 There are two types on inverters. Computer UPS(es?), especially the home owner versions, generally produce whats called a modified sine wave. It's a digital representation of a true AC since wave (current).....kinda like digitized speach. AC motors don't react well to this type of current. There are inverters that produce true AC sine waves & these will run AC devices without a problem. As a rule the true sine wave inverters are more expensive because they require a higher level of electronics. Also, FYI - the UPS can run the computer because the computer's own power supply "cleans" up the power while converting to DC (& they only do this for a short time). I can't say one way or another if the heater would be affected by the sine wave - but it's a good suspect. NOTE: These are broad generalizations as to how things work but you get the idea :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhoch March 9, 2006 Share March 9, 2006 Erik, You said that far more elegantly than I Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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